Thousands left jobless as 16 plants close doors

[HFishbine]

"In what North Carolina officials are calling the largest mass job loss in state history, Pillowtex Corp. closed its 16 plants in the United States and Canada on Wednesday andterminated 6,450 workers, more than 4,000 of them in North Carolina."

The textile industry has been screaming for help. Bush has turned a deaf ear.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, any dem serious about a "southern strategy" must make manufacturing job losses issue number one. More than geographic origin, good looks, guns, or war experience, southern voters are going to turn to a candidate who offers a plan to put people back to work.

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/rock/pillowtex31.htm

[Francis]

1. Cheap Labor

Walmart is currently selling 100% cotten Y fronts for less than 6 dollars for 7 pairs
That is what those plants are up against

[saigon68]

10. 10 YEAR OLD CHILDREN IN BANGLADESH MAKE 5 Cents A DAY

CHILDREN SEW WALMARTS CLOTHES

Some one a couple of year ago defending this practice--- (I think it was Walmart when these same children were caught sewing Made in USA labels in)commented

"Well at least their families have something to eat, before we arrived, they starved" COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM

[osaMABUSh]

31. Check the labels Made In (Not America)

Go to any store and find clothes not made in America. The worst offenders for using 3rd world labor:

1. Wal-Mart
2. Old Navy
3. Gap
4. American Eagle
5. Target
6. Tommy Hilfiger
7. Nike
8. Eddie Bauer
9. J C Penny
10. Disney


Check the labels on the clothes: Made in Vietnam, China, Pakistan, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, etc.

Of course, we Americans don't care where it's made we just buy the cheapest good looking item. That's America.

[saigon68]

34. I agree with You

One has to look high and low to find ANY article of clothing made in the USA. The prices, however, do not reflect that a 10 year old child was paid 5 Cents to make the shirt.

Nike's cost $220.00 a pair--- and the cost to maunufactuer was probably 75 cents. including shipping from the RE-EDUCATION THROUGH LABOR prison in VIET-NAM, where the shoes were made. aaah the Capitalist system.

And WAL-MART is nothing more than RED CHINA'S retail outlet (I'm not a Red Baiter, but what goes on here makes me want to throw up)

[ikojo]

24. According to the chimpy in chief

Those 6,000 plus workers who lost their jobs did so because they did not keep their skills up to snuff. Now if only THEIR daddies could afford to send them to Andover, Yale and then Harvard perhaps they, too, could be pResident.

Of course there will be workers who see things from the company's point of view (aren't they always there?)

When so many are working two jobs to make ends meet when is there time to go to school (let alone find the money) to improve skills?

It's time for a REVOLUTION!!!!

[are_we_united_yet]

29. Francis

I agree with you.

I also think this is bigger than Moron and company although they are probably helping to accelerate job loss.

DU has some of the most intelligent folks I've had the pleasure of communicating with. I think we should use the brain power in this forum to analyze and perhaps suggest what to do about the cheap labor issue. We can then tell our elected official our solution so he or she can take the credit. Who cares as long as it is ABB.

[Armstead]

2. I agree

The restructuring of our economy goes much futher than the tepid formulas of the Neo-Democrat Centrists are willing to propose.

These jobs are going AWAY. Just as they have been doing for years -- with the blessing of both Republican and Democratic politicians.

Until the Democrats start addressing the core issues of what is happening in the REAL economy (not Alan Greenspan's platitudes) they will not be able to challenge the GOP effectively.

If they do, they can kick GOP butt.

[Upfront]

23. Your Righr Armstead

The Dems have had their head up their ass. The Unions battled against NAFTA with everthing they had but no one listened. No that hi tech jobs are going to India, people are starting to hear. To little to late!

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

3. All the laid off workers can go to college and get MBAs

right?

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. You Know What Would Feel Reeel Good Right Now? A Nice, Warm

Tax cut.

But then, you have to be earning *income* in order to qualify, and these workers would be too poor to recieve any Child Tax Credit

So rats to them.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

30. With all the layoffs I hear about I doubt the tax cuts will help at all.

Especially when those making under 30k a year aren't getting any tax cut. In addition much of the tax cuts the average Joe sees will be eaten by higher state and local taxes. Such is my case. My property taxes went up this year.

Furthermore even conservative publications like the WSJ are reporting that most people are unlikely to see much of any wage increase over the next to years.

I think we are going to see what many people call a jobless recovery. Meaning the fat cats will do real well but the average puke aint getting shit.

[goforit]

5. This is absolutely horrific!!!..........

These people must be devastated!!

Bush has got to go in 2004!!!

But it may be too late.

[Dover]

6. Seems like the systematic elimination of the Middle Class

And no one has really uttered those words yet or talked about the big picture. And simulataneously government programs to assist in any kind of transition for these workers is has been cut dramatically (who will fund the soup lines?). Bush's answer? Community College. In other words, go re-educate yourselves. In what field? Maybe people will have to start moving to India to get a paycheck.

[Tansy_Gold]

8. Class warfare

"Systematic elimination of the middle class" is exactly what the VRWC is trying to accomplish. Every time you hear someone say "They want us to go back to the 50s!" don't even think 1850s; think 1350s. They want a landed aristocracy, where estates are inherited so the "right people" never have to work or worry.

The elimination of the inheritance tax is the cornerstone of this operation. Once it is IMPOSSIBLE for the middle class to move out of their sphere and it is IMPOSSIBLE for the wealth of the upper class to be taken away, there will be no middle class left. There will only be, dare we say it, the proletariat.

The middle class has been the main support of the upper class, especially through their own dreams and desires of someday being among the upper class. The upper class has no intentions of ever letting that happen.

But in a consumer-driven capitalist economy, which is now global, there's no way to stop it except by stopping consumption.

Just, of course, my two paltry cents.

Tansy Gold

[saskatoon]

16. How right you are

But it's deeper then that and much scarier. Click on this link
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/073103A.shtml.I urge you strongly to view what this former army specialist and author has to say. It will make your hair stand on end.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

18. problem with the middle class...

those who make $60K+ think that they are going to be wealthy someday and so they support the Republicans. That's the problem for the Democrats to work through, how to convince the "white bred" Middle Class that they are not wealthy and probably will never make it to Ken Lay Status!!

[wontmoveon]

28. Class warfare with a little racism thrown in..

To most white southerners RACE is the big issue and they will continue to cut off their noses
to spite their faces. Otherwise they never would have elected Ronnie and GW. The campaign code
words are very subtle but clearly understood. Besides, the majority of the people working in
textile factories are minorities and illegal immigrants ...they would be glad to get rid of both.
I am from the south and believe me I know what I am talking about. Dems have always missed
the point concerning southern politics. Only when the Dixicrats (Dems who eventually became Republicans)
were in positions of influence in the Dem party did the Dems have a chance in the south.
Clinton was more of a backlash against the preppy Bush-1 who was only given a chance on Reagan's
coattails. It was and is Clinton's embrace of blacks and other minorities that made he so hated
and despised over his terms. He made it to the second term because he did so much healing for
the country and the world during his first term that the apathetic left got off their duffs and voted for
him, along with some uperwardly mobile groupies and entrpeneurs. But by the time the dust had
settled, the cabal that had been after him all along had their people and money in place to ravish
his final days in office and it has been brutal politics ever since. The south has still not matured...NAFTA
was just another layer of icing on the cake. Most people don't really understand that NAFTA could
have worked had not the corporate giants decided that excessive profit was much more important
than true patriotism. Until people learn who really owns and controls these industries (a lot are not
even US citizens or they hold dual citizenships around the world) America will for ever be at the mercy
of charletons of all stripes.

[dfong63]

14. did you say community college?

you mean the same community colleges that are eliminating courses, laying off teachers, and raising fees, because of the STATE budget crises?

[onehandle]

7. Textiles? That isn't oil!

Or war industry. wtf does Bush care?

[Lars39]

9. I wonder what the workers have been told.

When HIS(chic jeans) went south of the border quite a few years ago, word was spread that it was because the workers were greedy, wanting a union, decent wages, benefits, etc. I had people that worked at one plant tell me that they didn't blame the owners for going where there were cheaper wages! Talk about brainwashed! HIS was a hell hole, with supervisors that will surely end up there. The owners(Siegels are their name) of HIS have subsequently filed for bankruptcy, effectively tying up the buildings that were used in one tiny town, for back taxes. The town had effectively sold it's soul to get HIS; unheard of tax breaks, a new water plant, you name it. The town can't get another company to establish there because of the court case for the buildings' taxes. The town is essentially dying.

[FuseONE]

12. .

The more I read about this stuff, the more I become convinced that Bush is a lame duck whose going to go down in defeat next year.

[drewb]

21. I agree...

But show me the alternate plan...

Globalization (FREE TRADE) hurts America's workers. When China is keeping it's currency low so that it can dump cheap products on stupid American consumers we have a problem. I wish someone was brave enough to say it besides Pat Buchanon and Ross Perot...

[ikojo]

25. Globalization hurts ALL workers

Globalization hurts ALL workers. We cannot be concerned only with American workers. We should be fighting for a planetary living wage and planetary child labor laws. Just as some are fighting against the idea of child soldiers so too we should sound the alert when a company uses children to manufacture goods.

The only reason they go to Asian countries is because the labor is cheap and the governments are more corrupt than even the current occupier of the people's White House.

[drewb]

33. Think globally, act locally...

My first and only concern is America and Americans. While your goals are noble, I don't think they are realistic.

[HFishbine]

13. Yep

I don't know about the town of whcih you write, but I can tell you that in N.C. workers are very anti-union. They've bought the line that it's "bad for business" to organize. We even had a letter to the editor recently where the president of a union local was making the case for recruiting non-union jobs. I swear! I didn't understand the logic, but I guess that's my point.

[Bandit]

15. Kind of like the new Teamster Hall in Texas being built with non-union

Labor. :crazy: But then again Teamsters are now republicans so I guess that is how they want things to be. I find it difficult to support the Teamsters on anything any longer. I say hire scab truck drivers. Fuck the Red Ink Republicans

[Dulcinea]

35. It's like that all over the Deep South.

Unions are a Yankee invention as far as they're concerned & most people here have no use for them. It's the old "We don't care how you do it up North" mentality.

[MattNC]

11. sucks here

I live in the town in which one of the plants is closing; people were either crying their eyes out or calling for someone's head. They understand there are no jobs available around here for them to find.

[Bandit]

17. I hope the job losses are in a conservative area.

I don't want to wish ill on anyone just want people to get what they deserve. If you vote against your interests then you should suffer the consequences.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

19. True!

:puke: on Bush.

[MattNC]

20. it is

but these job losses have only been a matter of when not if - nothing to do with Bush I don't think.

[HFishbine]

22. But Matt

You knew it was a matter of when, not if. I knew it was a matter of when, not if. Didn't Bush see the writing on the wall? Are you sying that Bush was powerless to do anything about it? I don't buy that.

Didn't see 9.11 coming (despite warnings)
Didn't see massive layoffs coming (despite warnings)
Didn't see civil rights violations coming (despite warnings)

Smells like utter incompetence to me.

[ikojo]

26. 40 years ago the south WAS the India of the US

40 years ago southern states used their relatively union free environments as a way to woo textile manufacturing from the more unionized northeast. It was the cheap labor area of the US. Like India there was a promise to corporations of low wages and a docile, compliant work force.

I wonder what people in the 1960s thought when good paying union jobs were moving out of the "rust belt" states to the south? Did they try to go down that way and unionize?

So, what the south did to the northeast and other rust belt states 40 years ago is being done to them by India and other cheap labor countries.

Sucks doesn't it? NOW do people understand why WORKING CLASS people need to stick together and not screw one another over?

[Atlant]

27. You read my mind...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=107406&mesg_id=107406#108699

[Boreas]

32. US companies will "outsource" 3 million jobs in next 12 years

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030804-471198,00.html
Interesting Time magazine article. Some workers, the lucky ones who temporarily keep their jobs, have to train their replacements and then take a pay cut. Isn't that a hoot?

"By taking advantage of lower wages overseas, U.S. managers believe they can cut their overall costs 25% to 40%..."

"How can America be competitive in the long run sending over the very best jobs?" asks Marcus Courtney, president of the Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. "I don't see how that helps the middle class."

I don't believe this question is being asked enough, but soon will be by surprised US workers.

The strength and protection of the country is primarily the economy, not the military. Why do these MBA's always opt for short term profit over long term stability? They live here. Their kids and relatives have to live here. What kind of place are they making for them? Where do these questions enter their equation? Or do they?

[saigon68]

36. OUTSOURCE= = =EXPLOIT THE POOR OF OTHER COUNTRIES

I'm sure the outsourced workers have

1. Social Security

2. Medical benefits

3. A minimum wage that means something.

4. A safe workplace free of danger (ie: guards on machines)

5. Child labor laws (ie: no 12 year olds in the factory)

6. A safe resonable work day/week (ie: no 14 hr days 75 hrs/week)

7. A pension plan

Oh, none of this and labor costs of less than $1.00 (US) a day

Lets move there </sarcasm>

[ikojo]

37. Yeah the rich live in the US but not in the same way as the rest of us...

"The strength and protection of the country is primarily the economy, not the military. Why do these MBA's always opt for short term profit over long term stability? They live here. Their kids and relatives have to live here. What kind of place are they making for them? Where do these questions enter their equation? Or do they?"

Yes, it is true that the corporate execs who are sending good paying jobs overseas for cheap labor do live in the US they really don't live in the same US as you and I.

By virtue of their wealth they can:
-send their kids to private schools from pre-K to post graduate work.
-hire private security to police their estates or subdivisions (there is an area of St Louis, off Lindell Blvd in the City, that is patrolled not by St Louis city cops but by private security. One cannot just drive around this area to look at the beautiful 100 year old homes because a security guard stops you and asks what your business is.)
-afford the best medical care (case in point the New York Times had an article late last year or early this year about boutique medicine. A wealthy client pays a doctor a fixed sum to join his practice-sometimes as high as $20k a year-this guarantees the client access to the doctor at all times. Of course any tests are paid out of pocket because these physicians who engage in boutique medicine are dropping out of HMOs and PPOs)
-have private beaches and parks that are accessible only by those who live in their communities.
-have their own private government, via homeowners associations.

About the only thing they cannot do is have highways that are used only by them. Currently they must travel on the same roads as their maids. Of course I am sure shrubby and Co are looking into ways to privatize the highways and make them fee for service.

[proud patriot]

38. Cheap Labor Conservatives love this

vote them out .

[Wonder]

39. Shit

this is the late 80's all over again, but rather than a fast in and out storming in the desert we have a protracted, bring 'em on we might be there a long time.

I have not come a cross anything to suggest we are moving into an economic depression. Nothing what it seems. AND it is alot worse than it seems but for a dozen people in the US and about 1200 in the world.

When is the shit going to hit the fan...? or is all this normal...?

I need someone to respond who has more knowledge of history and economics than I. Someone who can throw down some perspective. Because if you ask people swallowing the propaganda on this all is peachy keen three cheers for the red white and blue... no mention of any black n blue...